The Single Personality Trait Approach

Last updated:
04 Aug 2004

The Single Personality Trait Approach

Much personality research has studied the origin, nature and
consequences of single traits, such as introversion. Funder (2001) focuses on three single traits
that have received wide attention and have been the subject of
investigation in hundreds of studies:

conscientiousness

self-monitoring

authoritarianism

To illustrate the single trait approach, let's take a look at
authoritarianism.

Single Trait: Authoritarianism

The personality trait of authoritarianism has been extensively studied
since the 1950's. Much initial research was done as a reaction to
the outrages which occurred in Nazi Germany during WWII.
Authoritarianism began to be studied in order to try to understand its
nature and its origin. Authoritarianism is felt to lie at the heart of
racial prejudice.

Think of the stereotypical "Hitler", and you have the authoritarian
personality.

The Authoritarian personality may be described a person who is
unthinking and inflexible, aggressive, worshipful of authority above,
contemptuous of those below, fascinated by power, cynical, and may be
sexually repressed.

The origins of authoritarianism have been studied but it has been
difficult to determine whether adult authoritarianism is attributable
to: